Words From The Woman In The Red Dress

Dear O,

Dear O, I have sent this letter with excess postage.
With an excess of longing, of sorrow. It’s been a year now.

You see, approximately 0.5% of the men whom I pass on the street look like you. This phenomenon has been going on for years now. It stems from a pathological desire to unexpectedly run into you, and say, “Of all the sidewalks in all the towns in all the world, you walked onto mine.” Or some similar feat of seemingly casual perfection. Perhaps, a bit more more effortless, along the lines of, “I have written down words with mild success, I have only you to blame” or, “Here, have a copy of my book.”

I haven’t written a book yet. You weren’t supposed to have died. It’s rude, really. I was counting on you. I saw one of you just yesterday. In front of me on the sidewalk outside city hall. He turned and looked right at me,
then he crossed the street.
Or, he turned and looked at the traffic and I was there, waiting,and he looked at me like he could have been you and this could all be an elaborate lie,then he crossed the street.

O, I have been rehearsing.
I have been dressing for the occasion of our encounter.
I am not sure I have occasion left to dress up for.
I can’t believe that you are gone.
See, I. Well, I.
I think about you too much, really. Always did, as I am sure you know.
Knew, rather.

I begged you once not to kill yourself after you joked about it. It worked, I guess. It seems pointless now. Well, perhaps not. Well, you died anyway and it appears that you died without finding love. I hope that I am wrong. It’s not a question answered in an obituary. He died without finding love. It’s just not the sort of thing the papers are willing to say.

It said you were surrounded by family. That you had a brain tumor. Like a goddamn film character. As if you coughed somewhere in the first act of your life, or complained of a mild headache. As if we were all supposed to know. A brain tumor.
I mean, come on.

You had a profile on a group for singles. It’s still there. You were in a group for writers, too. You are still out there looking for her. The book is still unfinished. Was it the one about South America? You know the story, how your car broke down in the desert and you abandoned it there. Was that the one? Was that how it began?

I wrote you a letter once to which you never replied. I saw you in person and you informed me that I had used excess postage. That every year the postal service runs at a loss.

You have reminded me of the importance of maintaining distance from my delusions. You’d perhaps find all of this grief obnoxious, self-serving. Exaggerated. Dishonest. Cliché. So how about some honesty, at least you didn’t die from cirrhosis. I remember that time when you sat next to me in the lecture hall. How your skin smelled like alcohol. How your elbow brushed against mine. -A